Vendors take over parking lot, walkway at Loop Road market

Chennai: They have been allotted proper stalls within the newly inaugurated Marina Loop Road market, but many fish vendors are encroaching on the facility's parking area and walking bays, making the place dirty and inaccessible.
Fish vendors have taken over space Greater Chennai Corporation had set apart for parking 70 cars and for bikes. Of the 330 vendors allotted stalls inside the market, at least 90 have set up ice boxes and are squatting at the entrance. Visitors expressed difficulty in finding parking space along Loop Road, which is prone to heavy one-way traffic congestion from Light House to Foreshore Estate. "There's no space to walk in the market, let alone park cars or bikes," said R Ramesh, a local civic activist. "GCC has ignored this issue. It has taken no action to clear the encroachment," he said.
Despite the stalls being constructed with elevated stands for cutting fish, many vendors cut fish in the car parking area, making the walkways slushy. Vendors say they are forced to sell in the open because most customers don't come inside to explore the whole market. Vendors with stalls in the first and second rows of the market report good sales, with approximately 500kg of fish sold on weekdays and 2,000kg on weekends. "Why will customers come to the third or fourth row? Most people only visit the shops at the front," said K Vani, a vendor. She also said that some vendors who haven't been allotted permanent stalls operate during weekends, encroaching upon the bays specifically during that time to sell dry fish.
Mylapore MLA D Velu said vendors who were previously encroaching the roads have been moved inside the market. "We are dealing with it smoothly. We will discuss further with vendors in the first week of May," he said.